Darcy Lee Lewis and The No Good, Very Bad, Very HYDRA Sort of Day
by Grey Foxes
Summary: for dntpanic42. Darcy Lewis makes a few mistakes, and finds herself facing the results


There was a man, swearing and struggling with his bonds, on the other side of the window. Doctor Catslow watched him for several long moments, her assistant standing quietly and obediently at her side. "That," Catslow said eventually, "Is not Darcy Lewis. I told you to get her."

"Ma'am, that is Captain America," The assistant said calmly, "We have standing orders to capture him on sight. Orders that supercede yours."

"The team couldn't have gotten both of them?" Catslow demanded, a hard edge to her voice.

"No, ma'am." The assistant said. "Jones is still in the medbay and Carse nearly lost an eye."

Catslow turned and slapped her. The assistant was knocked back a bit from the blow, stumbling backwards and holding a hand to her face. She said nothing, and grit her teeth. "Find the unit leader and send him up here," Catslow snapped, shaking out her hand, "I need to speak with them. Try to find the Lionels as well- I need to know when someone will be by to collect the good Captain." Catslow sighed, and pursed her lips, examining the man from the relative safety behind the glass, "Nobody important saw you take him?"

"No, ma'am," the assistant said a bit tersely, "He was alone." Her hand fell from her face, revealing a handprint standing out in stark relief from her pale skin.

"Good," Catslow said, "Good. You're dismissed."

The assistant nodded, and left Doctor Catslow alone in the room, face carefully blank. Once she had left, her shoulders slumped a little a her posture became more relaxed. "Bitch," Darcy groused, rubbing at the photostatic mask. "Ow," she complained, rubbing at her cheek. "She sure has a fucking arm."

She glanced down the hall, and proceeded to the elevator, intending to make her way to the medbay and find Rollins, the current unit leader as Rumlow had vanished into the depths of HYDRA bureaucracy and hadn't been seen since shortly after the fall of SHIELD. Rollins had been promoted after the mess, and had taken to it with great gusto.

He was in medbay, talking to one of the nurses over a sleeping Carse's bed. She waited until he was done, persona of the nameless assistant.

"What." His voice was flat. Annoyed. He could probably guess why she was down here.

"Doctor Catslow sent me to send you up to her lab, sir." Darcy said, her voice carefully empty. "She wishes to discuss the circumstances of the Captain's capture."

He looked at Carse, and then at Jones. Both men were sleeping, and seemingly in better condition than they had arrived in. "Fine. I'll head up after I'm finished down here."

"Thank you sir." Darcy said.

Taking his grunt as a dismissal, Darcy left the medbay.

"Fuking Rogers," she bitched under her breath, "Fucking Barton and his _just one teensy little favor Lewis, I promise to pay you back_!" She wondered absently how Jane was doing- it'd been over a month since she'd last seen her and she found herself missing the tiny scientist every time she was down in the labs. At least Rogers' arrival meant that she would be able to get out of the base soon, as his abduction was a precursor to Romanoff and Wilson bringing the place down from the outside as Rogers and her brought the place down around their ears. She still wasn't certain why _Romanoff_ wasn't the one to go undercover, when had asked, she had been told that the spy didn't have the right figure before having the photostatic mask shoved at her.

This would be the last favor she ever did of this nature, she swore, and one hand unconsciously pressed onto her stomach.

Her silent ruminations had brought her back to the elevator, and Darcy hesitated.

The director- one Katrine Wilks- was singularly responsible for several employee deaths and had tossed Catslow's previous assistant out of a sixth story window for bringing her more than five pages of paperwork. Darcy wasn't exactly sure why Wilks was still around, as she was notoriously unstable and couldn't even handle a simple milk run. That was probably the reason why Wilks was stationed at a research-only base, with the occasional STRIKE team passing through.

Darcy took a deep breath, and pushed the button for the elevator.

She was going to get Barton back for this, mark her words.

* * *

Wilks, when Darcy had reached her office, had her boots up on the polished wood desk, and was flipping through what looked like the latest edition of _Game Informer._ There was dirt tracked into the tattered remains of an expensive carpet, and there was a huge dent in the wall. There were several dark stains on the floor that the carpet didn't cover, and Darcy was doing her best not to think how they had gotten there.

She waited, with well disguised impatience, for Wilks to acknowledge her. Doing anything else would be hazardous to her health.

"The fuck do you want?" Wilks demanded, not looking up from her magazine.

"Doctor Catslow has sent me to ask you about your plans for Captain America. She requested that you meet her down in the labs, where she will be able to brief you on what she currently has on him better, Director Wilks." Darcy said, carefully making her tone verge on the edge of near worship.

"Right." Wilks said, and flipped through another page in her magazine. Darcy tensed. "I suppose she does. But tell me, whateveryournameis, where on _earth_ did you get that photostatic mask?"

Darcy froze.

"It really was clever of you," Wilks mused, turning another page, "But a basic flaw of those masks is that you can see the seam of them if you look at them from the corner of your eye. I wasn't quite sure that you were a turncoat until now, however, as we have never met face-to-face until this very moment." Another page was flipped. Darcy was beginning to feel like a mouse facing down a boa constrictor, "I assume that Captain Rogers got himself captured entirely on purpose, as some sort of signal to you.

"You would be correct." Darcy said, her tone flat. "You're gonna kill me, aren't you?"

Wilks hummed. "Tell me," she said, changing the topic, "Have you ever played _The Cave_?"

"Once," Darcy admitted.

"Well, there are two endings. One, where you take the object you most desire and leave with it. and truly horrible consequences of your actions befall you. The second is when you give the object back to the employee, and you get what you desired in a matter of speaking and leave the better person." Wilks finally put the magazine down and steepled her hands together. "Now tell me, are you willing to leave without that object?"

"I'm not here for an _object_." Darcy objected.

"Oh, yes you are." Wilks said, and opened a drawer. Darcy tensed, expecting the Director to withdraw a gun, "You want this, don't you?"

It was Barnes' entire case file. The one that Rogers had currently was incomplete.

Wilks put it on the desk. Then she pulled out a much thinner case file, and put it on top of Barnes. It was Darcy's, and she was getting the sickening feeling that Wilks, at the very least, _knew_.

"The reason we are so interested in Darcy Lewis," Wilks began, "Is because she and the Winter Solider had an encounter some weeks ago. And since neither of them properly used protection, we have a little super baby on the way."

"Why are you telling me this?" Darcy asked.

"Frankly," Wilks said, "It's for my plea bargin. I'm not stupid. I see which way the wind is blowing. HYDRA's time is coming to a close. Hercules is burning every head he comes across. I'd rather be alive than dead."

"What do you want?" Darcy asked her.

"I want you to let me go," Wilks said frankly. "I'll disappear. Vanish into the depths of the mediocre towns of the world. In return, I'll give you these files. Do what you will with them. Nobody else knows about Lewis being pregnant but me- which I imagine comes to some relief to you."

Darcy deactivated the photostatic mask. It was pointless, now. "It really kinda does," She admitted.

"And, if you don't agree, I'll shoot you somewhere extraordinarily painful and nonfatal, sound the alarm, and give you over to good Doctor Catslow." Wilks said cheerfully. "Don't look at me like that, I highly doubt you'll be able to get out that door with the files before I get my gun out. You're a rookie, and this is your first undercover mission. You're _green_ , that's what you are or you would have never gotten caught in the first place."

Darcy swallowed, hard. "You'll just give me those," she said slowly, "And in return, I just let you disappear?"

"HYDRA and you, I suppose, have greatly underestimated my abilities." Wilks said calmly, "I've built my reputation with great care- and it shows, doesn't it?"

It did. It really did. Wilks had the cowardly, idiotic persona down, and it showed. Darcy had never expected to be rumbled, had never expected to be trapped. On her first mission, nonetheless. And now. And now she had a decision to make.

Would she protect her unborn child, and let this monster go?

Or would she try to escape, and risk everything?

She already knew the answer. "You can go." It was forced.

Wilks grinned. "Catch you on the flip side Lewis," she said gleefully, and swung her boots off the table and onto the ground with a loud thump. "May we never see each other again." She stood, and leaving the files on the table, brushed past Darcy and paused before opening the door. "What time do you plan on bringing down the base?"

"In approximately twenty minutes." Darcy nearly spat.

" _Excellent_." Wilks said, and left the room. Darcy activated her mask once again, and went to pick up the files. She hesitated for a brief instant, before tucking the files on the inside of her jacket and zipping it up.

"I fucked up," Darcy said to an empty room.

She started to make her way out of the room, just as the lights were cut and the power went down. Darcy nearly screamed in frustration, before ripping off the mask and shoving it into her pocket. She ran to the desk, rummaging through it before dumping out Wilks laptop and powering it on. It wasn't password protected, and it only took her a brief moment to connect to the network.

"Jesus fucking wept," Darcy swore, and powered off the second grid. She turned the laptop off and grabbed it. It went into the inside of her jacket as well.

Something blew up.

" _Christ_ ," Darcy said.

She found Romanoff on the level below hers, placing explosives on the wall. Rogers was making a ruckus in the next room, his shield making distinctive clanking noises as it bounced off the walls. "Hey Lewis," Romanoff said easily, "What held you up?"

"The second grid and a few HYDRA agents," Darcy retorted. "You're earlier than I expected."

"Steve was looking a little bored," Romanoff said, "So I thought I'd help him out."

Darcy nodded. "What do you want me to do?"

"Work your way up back to the entrance and start placing explosives in cars. This place needs to be completely decimated." Romanoff paused. "Then, find Sam and have him tell you where the car is."

"Right," Darcy said. She accepted the packet of explosives that Romanoff pushed on her, and she went up the stairs. The stairwells were empty- which came as something off a relief to her- and she made it outside in short order. She spotted Sam on the roof, harassing the people stationed there as she made her way to the car lot.

After she had placed them in the cars, Sam found her and pointed her to the getaway car. She got in just as the first explosions were started, the two files were burning a hole as she removed the laptop.

She was half-way up shit creek without a paddle, and she highly doubted she'd get one anytime soon.

With two days till Christmas.


End file.
